Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Liberal-National government's new education policy is most definitely a con. We only have to go to their own briefing documents that they gave to members of the press gallery that said quite clearly that, compared to Labor's arrangements, this represents a saving of $22.3 billion over 10 years, 2018 to 2027. That means that schools are getting $22 billion less than they would have under Labor. And, of course, we want to hold the government to account, because we remember how, across the country, at election booths they said that they backed Labor's education policy dollar for dollar and that no school would have a dollar less when they came to government. Well, they have let us down dramatically—first under the member for Warringah's leadership and now under the member for Wentworth's leadership. They have let us down terribly. Labor's policy would have seen all schools move up to their fair funding level by 2019, and by 2022 in Victoria, whereas the government are making promises out to 2027.

I have to spend a moment on the hypocritical nature of some of the assertions that have been made here, because I was in this chamber when, for month after month, those on the opposite benches claimed that saying you were funding something past the forward estimates was no guarantee that you were funding something at all. And yet now I hear speaker after speaker make assertions that they are funding something beyond the forward estimates and that we are to take them at face value, even though I have heard them time and time again say that there is no government that is committed beyond the forward estimates. So I have to put it on record tonight that I do not believe that, beyond the forward estimates, there will be one cent extra for schools across this country. I say that with absolute belief, because this government has absolutely no faith in education as being an economic driver and it has no faith in the notions of fairness that should be driving this country.

The government's policy is not fairer. In fact, their policy is more unfair than the policies that John Howard had as Prime Minister of this country. Under John Howard, the biggest funding increases went to private schools, as will be the case under this government, but it was limited to 60 per cent of the government spend, and 30 per cent of the government spend went to public schools. Now we are in a situation where they have broken with the Gonski recommendations—absolutely broken with the biggest review of education funding in this country's history. They have broken with those recommendations and are suggesting that they will take the policy that gives 80 per cent of the federal spend to non-government schools and only 20 per cent to government schools. This is grossly unfair, and to claim otherwise is to seek to deceive the Australian people.

I know what it means in my electorate, having come from schools. I know full well what these cuts mean on the ground to schools in my electorate. I know that a school like Iramoo Primary School, a severely disadvantaged school in terms of the families whose children attend there, will have a $500,000 cut. I spoke across last week to the Catholic sector and I understand what it is that they are complaining about. I understand why they say this is unfair. I am going to take a moment to explain it to those in the chamber who may just be reading from their speaking notes and not actually understanding this policy.

They talk about 27 special deals. Let me take the last 40 seconds to explain. Deals that they claim are special deals are where the Commonwealth entered into an agreement with a sector or a state to allow their needs based models to operate. That is the case in the Victorian public sector and in the Victorian Catholic sector. That means that, in both of those sectors, they have a finer grain needs based model than the SES model, which, in fact, determines what children attend which school, not what is the average income across an SES. It is not to do with postcode; it has to do with the actual enrolment in that school. That is why when Catholic school and public schools are saying this is a con and a rip-off, I stand with them and agree with them. This is an absolute con.